[Ex Libris Gore Vidal] Michals, Duane. Album, The Portraits of Duane Michals, 1958-1988. Second Edition. 1988. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition—jacket shows edgewear and mild discoloration. Book is stamped “From the library of GORE VIDAL” on the flyleaf.

The enigma of Duane Michals is that he has made it his life’s work to photograph what cannot be seen. Physically impossible? Yes. But metaphysically—emotionally—perhaps not. He admonishes, “One must never confuse the profound with the clever.” His has long advocated shooting subjects in their natural habitat instead of studio in which they might be forced into the Procrustean bed that some photographers call their signature styles. The dividend has been a body of work of ethereal beauty. This book of portraits includes the famous such as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Warren Beatty, and Jean Moreau, as well as mysterious unknowns of whom Michals’s alluring photographs are often more compelling (and seductive) than the celebrity portraiture.

“High style photographers tend to take the same portrait over and over again. It is essentially the same picture, only the face has been changed to protect the innocent.”